Commercialisation of genetically-modified foods is going too fast and needs closer scrutiny, a panel of 14 Australian citizens has found.

They reached this conclusion having heard the divergent views of a panel of experts and industry representatives in Canberra over the past three days.

"The speed with which genetically-modified organisms have been developed and introduced by multinational companies and the scientific community has left many people internationally completely unaware of and uninvolved in the process," said the lay panel in their report.

"An issue as important as altering the genes of our food supply should not be left in the hands of a few."

The 14 panelists, who had no previous knowledge of gene technology, were part of the first Australian 'consensus conference' -- a process for involving ordinary people in decision-making about gene technology in the food chain.

In addition to the three-day conference, they met for two intensive briefing weekends in January and February.

The panel expressed concern that authorities regulating gene technology in the food chain are currently not serving community interests. Stringent legislation should focus on protecting health and the environment, their report said.

They called for a hold on new commercial releases and importation of genetically-altered foods until a Gene Technology Office is established as

an independent body within a statutory authority. They also felt labeling of all genetically-modified foods should be compulsory.

The Gene Technology Office is currently being established by the Australian government as an office within the Department of Industry, Science and Resources. Existing regulations require that only genetically-modified foods which are not "substantially equivalent" to their non-genetically-modified counterparts be labelled.

The Council of Health Ministers recommended last December that all genetically-modified foods be labelled, but this has been questioned by the

food industry, especially in the case of extracted products like oils and sugars which come from genetically-modified crops, but which themselvescontain no DNA.

The citizen panel requested labeling of all genetically-modified foods,"regardless of where [in the food chain] modification occurs."

Dr Jim Peacock, Chief of the Division of Plant Industry at CSIRO and one of the expert speakers at the conference, said the report was "sensible and well-reasoned", and hoped the Australian Government would listen to it.

However, he admitted that full implementation of the panel's recommendations on labeling would be "difficult".